Friday Wrap Up

The Advanced Garde Manger class is now over. I really liked the work we produced but it was a hugemongous amount of hard work. These last two classes have been production classes, meaning that we were working all week for the Friday Buffets for our public restaurant.

This week my buddy Phil and I had to make a vegetable terrine with an egg salad and accompanying Horseradish Sour Cream sauce; and a pheasant balantine with a mushroom salad and a watermelon mango salad - both with different dressings. Everything was running smooth until Phil-e-mon sliced off a nice section of his right thumb on the meat slicer. Yikes! He had to go to the hospital and they gave him some fake skin to stop the bleeding and a huge bandage for his efforts. Oh, I felt so bad for him.

I was Very Careful when using the slicer. I had to slice salami's and cheeses today and used serious care in the process. Even cleaning it scares me!

Then we plated our weeks work on big presentation mirrors. We got very artisic with designs, fruits and cheeses along with our terrines, ballantines and gallantines, smoked turkeys, salamis, and other assorted combinations. They looked gourgeous! I forgot my camera so I'm waiting for another student to send me the photos.

What a busy week. Next and FINAL class is our restaurant production class. I can't believe I've been here one year now. Amazing. On November 10th I start work at the San Francisco Chronicle. Pretty darn amazing. Do I feel different? Yes, I do feel like I know a lot more than I did coming in. I just need more time in a kitchen!! Can you believe that?! I've got the obsession I guess. I really love to cook.

Lots Going On

This has been another hectic week for the Kitchen Bitch. Half our class showed up for the first three days so that meant that the rest of us worker bees had to hustle to do all the presentation dishes.

I filleted out about 6 trout, cut them in half, put them in fish brine overnight, then smoked them in the smoker the next day.

I cleaned and trimmed a big ole Artic Char fishy and cut it down thin like so I could pipe some fish moussiline on the inside, role it up like a holiday yule log then poached it, chilled it and will cut it out and present it tomorrow on a platter. I made 4 of these puppies. That took me into 2 1/2 hours overtime on Tuesday.

I made some dressings for a few different salads, made some cheese and jalapeno crackers for another dish and just busted my butt for 3 days solid. Whew.

I also had my friends from Chicago out for a one day visit yesterday. Joe and Cher are the best buddies. We have such a good time together and a fabulous dinner. More on this in another post. They deserve their own post!

Tomorrow I head down to Los Angeles to visit with my daughter, cook a Chef dinner for two friends on Saturday, visit with friends Sunday, lunge with Joey and a quick visit (I hope) to my dentist Monday then back to San Fran. After that there will only be 4 days of this advanced Garde Manger class to sweat.

I'm coming up on my one year mark! I can't believe I'm finishing my classes and getting my degree. Awesome!

I'll have to finish my externship at the San Francisco Chronicle and then by February 1st I'll be a free agent!! Anyone need a live in Chef?? Hey, you never know.....

Buy Me A Drink!!

This week is OVER! What a ton of work we did. We busted our butts all week to make platters of food today for the Friday Buffet in our Careme Dining room. Phil and I made a brickload of Chicken Sausages, Smoked Racks of Lamb, a grilled rack of lamb, a Chicken Liver Terrine and a gallantine of Poussin (small chicken). In addition we had to make accompanying sauces for each and salads, salad dressings and then personalize them with our own garnishes and plating ideas. Then we had to make two cold soups; a Gazpacho and a Vichyssoise (potato/leek soup).

The little shot glass is filled with Gazpacho. The only thing I personally liked out of what we made was the Lamb. I'm not one who cares much for the "force meats" categories.

I'm relived the week is over and my poor feet have 2 days to regain circulation before we begin again in a new food group. Phil and I were in the Meat Group this week. Next week we'll either have Seafood or Charcuterie (sausages, headcheese and such). I don't know how my feet will survive this class. When I got home today I just wanted to put them in the microwave and blow them up. Couldn't hurt any more than they did.

I left class so late yesterday working to get everything set up for today that I missed the shuttle bus to take me back to the barracks so I had to catch the real town bus. I was chatting with some friends when the bus came so I made a dash for it, jumped on and sat down for the ride. After a short while I noticed that the driver was taking a different route... oh wait, I must have got on the WRONG BUS! After a nice cheap tour of the streets of San Fran I got off the damn bus at 1st and Market which is by the Embarcadero (where the ships dock). I had a nice long walk back. I got provisions, read: diet pepsi and chicken soup (shoulda got two cups o'soup - one for each foot) and just kept walking until I finally got through the Tenderloin District (they should rename it Tenderfoot District), the Civic Center and then to my little merchant seaman quarters at the Oasis Inn.

Then it was rise and shine this AM at 5:30 to do it all over again. My feet were still mad at me for my bussing blunder and screamed at me all day. So, do I take one Vicodin or one for each foot Doc? Seriously. Ow.